SEM/TEM of the Month

-- Semiconductor International, 7/1/2000

Silicon chips may reach their performance limits several years later than previous predictions, according to researchers at Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs. While other research groups have said nine to 10 atoms would be the thinnest insulating layer for reliable, practical silicon chips, Ashraful Alam and his Bell Labs colleagues have shown the intrinsic reliability limit is fewer than six atoms, or 1.5 nm (see "New Life for Conventional Silicon Technology?" for more information). This high-resolution transmission electron micrograph shows a 1.6 nm gate oxide.

Please send submissions for SEM/TEM of the month to Peter Singer, Editor-in-Chief, 58 Summer St., Andover, MA 01810 USA. 

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